Free Shatterproof by Jocelyn Shipley Page B

a lot of girls now.” She sounds serious.
    “Dunno.” What else can I say?
    Dakota turns left onto Seaview Drive. “What I don’t know is why you’d want to be seen with Laurence the loser.”
    Laurence is Lug’s real name. But last year Dakota got everybody calling him Lug. It is supposed to be funny because he’s stocky and odd-looking. I used to call him Lego Man because he’s kind of square shaped with a short neck.
    Lug and I both know not to get into it with Dakota. We ignore her and start talking about the games we want to buy.
    When Dakota drops us off at West Pacific Mall, she says to me, “See ya, Bo. Have fun picking up girls. And do me a favor? Don’t let Laurence be a perv, okay?”
    I say, “Thanks again for the ride. Bye.”
    Lug says, “Hope you crash.”
    As we head for the entrance I ask him, “So how come it’s Laurence now?” Trust me, Lug is not a Laurence.
    “My sister’s just trying to ruin my life,” Lug says. “As usual.”
    At first he hated being called Lug. Then it caught on, and he liked the tough sound of it. That is why Dakota wants to call him Laurence now.
    “Yup, that’s her goal,” I say.
    “I still can’t believe she ratted us out.”
    “You,” I say. “She ratted you out. I was totally innocent.”
    Here’s what happened. At a beach party after our grad, Lug took photos of some popular girls. They’d changed from their fancy dresses into bikinis and were dancing around the fire. Then he Photoshopped them so it looked like the girls were also smoking and drinking.
    Dakota hacked into his iPad and found the photos. She figured out he wanted to make money from them. He was planning to blackmail those girls.
    I don’t know why he thought that would work. Somebody would have figured out pretty fast that the photos were fake. All I know is that Lug’s weird about girls. He’s obsessed with them, but he doesn’t seem to respect them. I think it comes from the way Dakota treats him.
    It turned out that one of the girls was Dakota’s best friend’s little sister. So Dakota told her friend. Her friend told their parents. Their parents told Lug’s parents. Lug said I was in on it too, so they also told Mom.
    Lug’s parents convinced everyone to let it go after he proved he’d deleted the photos. They searched his phone, iPad and laptop. He also had to write an apology to the girls. Then his family moved to Vancouver, but that had already been planned.
    Mom freaked about the whole thing. I got grounded for two weeks. Which was insanely unfair, because I wasn’t in on it.
    Okay, I was there when Lug took the photos. But I had no idea what he was planning. See, it was right after Dad left. I was dazed with confusion and rage. All I could think about was myself. How my life had changed.
    But Mom said I should have stopped Lug from taking the photos. I should have known he was up to something, because he always is. She said he was a bad influence. She said I couldn’t hang out with him. Ever again.
    But here I am.

Chapter Three
    Our plan is to check out the mall’s game and skate stores. Then we’ll eat burgers and fries at the food court. Then we’ll go to a movie. And then I’ll catch another bus and the five o’clock ferry home.
    Before we go inside, Lug stops for a cigarette. This is new.
    “When did you start smoking?” I ask him.
    “Over the summer. Want one?” He offers me the pack.
    “No, thanks. I’m training for cross-country.”
    “So?” He huddles under the entrance overhang. Right beside the No Smoking Within 10 Meters sign.
    “So it’s kind of bad for your lungs.” I don’t like standing there in the rain with him. “I’ll be in the game store.”
    “Up to you.”
    I leave him with all the other smokers.
    In a few minutes Lug comes to find me. We spend an hour looking at the new games. I can’t afford anything. I have just enough money for the bus, ferry and food. It took awhile to save that up.
    Lug buys a couple of games he